File this one under “Weird and Wacky”. A video has quickly gone viral online that supposedly shows a woman with a cell phone in behind-the-scenes footage of Charlie Chaplin’s The Circus, which was filmed in 1928. This is obviously impossible since cell phones were invented around 50 years later. However, the footage almost seems to speak for itself. So, was this burly woman playing a game, or is she a time traveler?
The video, made by amateur filmmaker (red flag #1) George Clarke, has already gotten over 1 million views on YouTube in just over a week. In it, Clarke explains that the footage is one of the DVD extras on a Charlie Chaplin box set he had recently purchased. You can see in the video a woman (or man in drag, as some theories go) walking across the view of the camera holding a black object to her ear and seemingly talk to it. She even turns to the camera before the clip transitions away. Watch for yourself below.
The blogosphere has picked up on this in the past day or so, and speculations abound. From what I can tell and have read, the footage seems to be real and untampered with, though I have yet to see a solid confirmation on that. Most people give chronologically sound explanations for what the object could be (including a hearing aid or portable radio), but don’t explain the fact she looks to be communicating with the object itself. Obviously, Clarke thinks she’s a time traveler. What do you think?